JlEW PflYTOIiOGIST. 
Vol. VII., Nos. 4 & 5. 
May 
3 
1ST, 1908. 
A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ANATOMY OF GINKGO 
BILOBA. 
By F. J. F. Shaw, A.R.C.S. 
(With Text-Figs. 16—18). 
OTWITHSTANDING the numerous speculations upon the 
morphological nature of the “collar” in the ovule of Ginkgo 
none appears to have been based upon an adequate anatomical 
investigation of the organ in question. Most have been derived 
from a study of malformations, the phylogenetic value of which 
many modern botanists are disposed to doubt. It is hoped that 
the results put forward in the present short note may furnish a new 
standpoint from which to view the problem. 
The material consisted of about a dozen specimens of the 
female “ flower ” preserved in spirit. All the specimens showed 
two ovules, one fertile and one small aborted sterile ovule. The 
sections were cut by hand, stained with safranin, and mounted in 
glycerine jelly. Subsequently a model of the xylem was built up 
from the sections, after the method employed by Farmer and Hill 
in the case of Angiopieris. 
Vascular System of Female Flower. 
As is well known, the female “ flower ” consists of a stalk or 
peduncle bearing two lateral stalked ovules. A series of transverse 
sections was cut from the base of the peduncle up into the fertile 
ovule. 
A transverse section taken from as near the base of the 
peduncle as the specimens allowed shows a ring of four collateral 
bundles, the bundles being definitely associated in pairs. A little 
higher up in the peduncle, the two bundles of each pair unite and 
form two collateral bundles facing one another (Text-fig. 16, 1 ). 
Of these two bundles one is concerned with the vascular supply 
of the fertile ovule and the other with that of the frequently sterile 
